A business growth technology strategy is a realistic blueprint that clarifies the way a business will leverage technology to better satisfy its customers, minimize costs, and generate new opportunities. It brings business objectives and the appropriate digital tools, systems, people and processes together. A sound technology strategy is not necessarily one of the latest software or hardware. Rather, it’s about selecting technology that addresses actual business challenges and achieves long-term objectives. Other factors that should be taken into account when developing the strategy include budget constraints, cybersecurity, staff expertise, data management, scale and future technologies.

Technology isn’t just a technical issue for businesses anymore. It has an impact on nearly all aspects of today’s business including customer service, marketing, accounting, communication, operations and decision making.

But more technology is not necessarily correlated with more growth. A business can invest in software and face the problems of slow processes, poor customer experiences or increased costs. The distinction typically lies in the approach.

A strategic approach to technology for business growth enables a business to determine the value that technology can add to the business. It also safeguards businesses from making investments just because they’re popular.

It is the same idea for a small business as well as a growing business. Begin with business objectives, problems, technology choices and develop a growth plan. 

Start With Clear Business Goals

The first step towards developing a technology approach is to know what the business is looking to achieve. Technology should be used to promote these objectives and not work in isolation.

For instance, a business would like to boost its sales by 20% in a year. A different company might wish to minimize the time to respond to customer support. When a company is expanding, they may require more efficient systems as their processes can’t accommodate the increased users.

This sets the different technology choices.

When selecting a tool: 

• What are the principal objectives of business?
• What factors are limiting growth?
• What are employees wasting time on?
• What are the customer needs to be addressed?
• What are some of the cost reductions that can be achieved with improved technology?
• What are management’s needs for information to make better decisions?

The answers provide a basis for the strategy. 

A distinction between short term and long term goals is also advantageous. Small business might require an easy bookkeeping solution now and want to step up to a bigger business resource planning solution later. When you plan ahead, you can prevent problems when it comes to technology decisions. 

Assess Your Current Technology And Business Processes

When considering new technology investments, thoroughly review the current technology being used in the business. There is a lot of technology that many organizations have but it’s not everything that’s compatible with each other.

Develop a list of existing tools and systems. These can be accounting software, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, communication tools, cloud storage, websites, payment systems, cyber security products and internal applications.

Next compare the performance of each system. 

Consider:

• Does the technology work?
• Is it relevant to the business needs today?
• Does it require lot of effort to operate for employees?
• Is it compatible with other solutions?
• Are there multiple copies of critical information on the different platforms?
• Is the use of only a portion of functionality by employees?
• Are there security or compliance issues in the system?
• Does it have the potential to expand? 

Business processes need to be evaluated when considering technology. Sometimes, the problem is the process itself and not software.

For instance, when employees are having to manually input the same customer details into three different systems, automation could help. First, however, the business needs to have an understanding of the reasons for the duplication. Addressing the cause of a problem often is more successful than piling on another application.

This assessment establishes a technology baseline. Identifies what to preserve, develop, replace or eliminate. 

Choose Technology Based On Business Value

Many businesses make the wrong decision when selecting technology for its features, not its value. A product can have hundreds of uses, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s appropriate for the organization.

Rather, consider technology based on the problem that it must address.

For instance, a retail company could require improved visibility on inventory. An improved customer relationship management system may be required by a service company. As a company scales up, it can require cloud-based collaboration tools to help workers work efficiently across locations.

When evaluating technology options, keep in mind:

Business impact: How directly does the technology directly benefit the revenue or productivity, the satisfaction of customers, and/or cost reduction?

Consider the total cost: Don’t just focus on the price of the item. Subscription, implementation, training, maintenance, integrations, upgrades, and support.

Ease of use: If the system is complicated employees may be less productive because of difficulty in using it.

Integration: New technology to be used should be compatible with key existing technologies where possible.

Scalability: The solution must have the capacity to accommodate more employees, customers, transactions or locations as the company expands.

Security: The business should know how to store, secure, retrieve and recover data.

Not the most advanced the best technology is not. It’s the one that gives the business some value without adding needless complexity. 

Build A Practical Technology Roadmap

Now that you know what a business needs, and what the technology offers, create a roadmap. With a technology roadmap, the company has a realistic order in which to make improvements.

Don’t try to make too many changes at once, otherwise it can be disruptive. Staff can get caught up, projects can grow in conflict with each other and expenses can escalate rapidly.

Rather, break projects down into phases.

The basic schematic could be: 

1. Immediate priorities: Respond to immediate security, infrastructure, and/or operational issues.
2. Short-term fixes: Implement tools that can help increase productivity or customer service in a short time.
3. Medium-term projects: Enhance major systems, automate processes, improve data management.
4. Long term projects: Plan for bigger digital transformation efforts, future expansion.

Each project should include outcome, timeline, expected benefit, estimated cost and owner. 

For instance, rather than ‘implement a new CRM’, specify the project more precisely. The aim may be to gather all of the customer information and make sales follow-up time easier by a percentage.

This simplifies the technology strategy to manage and assess.

The roadmap needs to be flexible as well. Technologies evolve rapidly, and business priorities are prone to evolution, too. Frequently check the roadmap, not a document. 

Focus On Data, Security, And Scalability

The choice of technology should involve more than just day-to-day productivity. Security data and future expansion must be a component of the plan right from the start.

Companies gather a great deal of information regarding customers, employees, finances, products and operations. Faulty data management can result in mistakes in reports, process inefficiencies, and incorrect decisions.

A good technology strategy should have clear policies for: 

• Data storage and organization
• Access permissions
• Data backups
• Information sharing
• Data quality
• Retention and deletion
• Business continuity

Security is also paramount. With the increasing reliance on digital systems in businesses, security threats can impact operations, finances, and customer trust.

These are the basics for security: having robust authentication and regular software updates, employee security training, appropriate access controls, backups and a plan for responding to incidents.

There should also be some consideration to scalability. A technology solution that works for 10 employees, might not work for 100 employees.

When considering acquiring a system, ask how the system performs with 2x more customers, new employees, new markets, or more transactions. 

Prepare Employees And Measure Results

Technology can be a great tool, but if it’s not used correctly by employees. Human beings are a key element of any technology approach.

Businesses need to communicate why the change is necessary and how it will benefit the employees when introducing a new system. Training should be hands-on and applied to work.

Allowing employees to adapt is also crucial. It is easy to become frustrated and have a low adoption rate when executing the implementation quickly.

Managers need to keep track of the use of the technology by their staff. The company must know the reasons for people to still be using manual processes. It might be the lack of training, system design or lack of proper system workflow update.

The last step is the measurement of results.

These are some helpful technology performance indicators: 

• Reduced operating costs
• Increased employee productivity
• Improved response times for customers.
• More conversions by the sales team
• Lower error rates
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Reduced downtime 

Measurement makes tech investment a business choice. If the system is not yielding the desired outcome, the firm can make changes.

Technology strategy is not a project, it’s a process. Frequent reviews enable businesses to discover new opportunities, eliminate unnecessary tools, and invest well. 

Final Thoughts

The foundation of building a technology strategy for business growth is a simple one: Technology should be for the business, not the technologies business.

The best approach is to have solid objectives. It is analysing of present systems and processes and then making recommendations. It determines technology to pursue based on business value and develops a roadmap that is feasible for the company.

Employee adoption, data management, security and scalability are also issues to consider. A new system is useful, only if people are able to use it effectively and it helps the organisation achieve its broader goals.

Firms don’t have to keep up with all the new technology trends to be competitive. They should be aware of the problems they have to address and select the tools that can help them solve meaningful problems.

A practical technology strategy provides businesses with the clarity they need. It can help make your business more efficient, improve customer relations, enhance your decision-making, and build a better base for a sustainable future. Most important of all, it makes technology investments much more of a business plan and a much less of an isolated purchase.